Spring

Blossom all over the place and new leaves and baby animals and sometimes its worth ignoring all the crap in the world and just sitting down amongst the flowers.

The boys made fresh bread for the first time with a little help and it came out lovely. We ate it for lunch. Methinks there will be none left for later :)

Eldest boy is 12 tomorrow and starting to look a little grown up. I won't be able to look down on him for much longer. We have to find a new way to school him next year as he's outgrown the one he presently inflicts with his presence. More homeschooling possibly. I'm hoping for a tutor somewhere as I really don't want to go back to mainstream. He does really badly in that sort of system - he's too much of an independent thinker to cope with straight jacket thinking and hasn't the ability to cope yet.

Mind you, filling up minds with useless information in order to pass useless tests does seem a bit silly really and disciplining someone for being different is just wrong. I much prefer that they be guided into thinking and doing than crammed with junk. The junk you collect should really be up to you. If you have a desire to learn a stack of dates in history or the cultivation systems in outer Mongolia that's fine, but should be relevant to teaching only if it is used as an illustration to some wider set of thinking. ( eg. scientific method.) The actual thinking is what needs testing.

I remember the dumbest person in our group getting a high mark just because she could remember what a list of critics said and a couple of quotes. She never actually read the text in question at all, even the quotes came from some other critique. And she was proud of that too! She only made one mistake there and that was simply that she denied herself the pleasure of discovering a great mind for herself.

So, go smell the roses for yourself. Then you will have some idea what they are about.

viv in nz